With a $5 million Series A, Nudge Rewards Wants to Gamify Employee Performance Across North America

Nudge Rewards, which allows retailers and hospitality companies to communicate with their frontline employees on mobile, has raised a $5 million CAD Series A to expand across North America.

The round was led by was led by Generation Ventures with participation from BDC Capital, Brightspark Ventures, StandUp Ventures, and new and returning angels. The company has raised $3.2 million to date from investors like Brightspark, the RBC Generator Fund, MaRS IAF, JoltC. At least $1 million of that funding was raised as Greengage in 2013, which recognized employees for contributing to their community through a rewards system.

BDC Capital participated through its new $70 million Women in Tech Fund, which Minister of Small Business and Tourism Bardish Chagger will officially unveil during an event at Communitech later today (Nudge Rewards founder and CEO Lindsey Goodchild will be speaking at the event). The Women in Tech Fund is set to be the largest fund for women-led companies in North America. However, sources familiar with the matter indicated that this fund does not necessarily have a focus on women founders, but will broadly include companies with women in leadership positions.

Nudge’s app connects employers with frontline employees to provide them with critical information, deliver training materials, and reward them with recognition for hitting goals.

“There is a massive opportunity for our innovative solution within markets that have large, non-desk workforces,” said Goodchild. “We’re fortunate to have built a team of industry experts and partners to propel our growth. This new financing will allow us to further serve our customer base and expand our presence in select Canadian and US markets. We are very well-positioned to expand our leadership role in this space.”

Nudge Rewards currently has customers like Rogers Communications, Compass Group, Golf Town, and Samsung, and the company was recently named a BetaKit Spotlight selectee.

“Lindsey and Dessy are great examples of female founders that have identified a gap in growing markets, are using technology to solve an important problem, and building a business with massive potential to scale,” said Michelle Scarborough, managing director of Strategic Investments and Women in Tech at BDC Capital.

In addition to the funding, Alistair Mitchell, President of Generation Ventures, will join the Nudge Rewards board of directors.